


The Perseids

by Ardatli



Category: The London Life (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Canon Backstory, Gen, Nate was adorable, Prompt Fill, Regency, before he broke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 03:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6887194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ardatli/pseuds/Ardatli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"Shhhh, come on," Nate covered Nora's mouth with his hand before she could squeak and wake up Dot. His burned-down candle end barely gave enough light to see by this early in the morning, but it was enough to get Nora's little feet shoved into her slippers and a cloak around her shoulders. "It's time."</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perseids

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt game on the board - a fill for the prompt 'Stars.' 
> 
> The Perseid meteor showers take place every year in the month of August, are most visible at twilight and just before dawn, and have been documented as far back as the third century CE. I don't know exactly where they show up in the sky in Devon, and have faked it for the purposes of this vignette.
> 
> Based on characters from http://www.thelondonliferpg.com/

"Shhhh, come on," Nate covered Nora's mouth with his hand before she could squeak and wake up Dot. His burned-down candle end barely gave enough light to see by this early in the morning, but it was enough to get Nora's little feet shoved into her slippers and a cloak around her shoulders. "It's time."  
  
"It's early, Nate," Nora complained, all big blue eyes and curls tumbling haphazardly out of the plait that mother insisted on for both the girls every night. Dot woke up every morning with her hair in perfect order, but Nora never managed it. Maybe when she was nine like Dot, instead of six. "I'm still sleepy."  
  
"We have to go up before the sunrise, or we'll miss it, silly," Nate tugged at her hand. The house was dead quiet this hour of the morning; it was too early even for the girls to be moving around downstairs, lighting the fires. There was the faint smell of bread baking fomr somewhere, so maybe cook was up, but she wouldn't come up to the roof and catch them, no way. "Now come on."  
  
Nora yawned and rubbed her eyes, but she left her hand clasped trustingly in his as she followed him to the door. "What about Dot?" she whispered, glancing back at the bed where her sister was still asleep. "Shouldn't she come too?"  
  
"She'll only tell," Nate made a face. Still - he hesitated with his candle, the tiny orange light flickering over Nora's features, illuminating one of them at a time. Her squinchy little nose, the upturned chin that looked so much like his. The idea of going to school was exciting, _so_ exciting! New people, and new things to learn, and adventures just like in the storybooks-  
  
But as sappy and stupid as it was, and as annoying as they were, he had the funny sore spot deep in his stomach that suggested he was going to miss his sisters.  
  
Nora blinked at him and her lip started to tremble, and Nate rolled his eyes. "Fine, have it your way," he grumped. "But if she gets us in trouble, it's your fault." He picked his way back across the nursery, because any minute now he was going to step on something or knock something over, and nurse would be in and the game would be up in an instant.  
  
He shook Dot awake a little more carefully than he had Nora - you never knew if she was going to come up hitting - and put his finger to his lips when she opened her eyes. She started off cross, but looked around the dark room and her eyes went wide instead. "What is it? Is something wrong?"  
  
"Nothing's wrong, Dotty-Dot," Nate grabbed her hand and pulled her out of bed, tapping his foot impateiently while she pulled on the dressing gown hanging off the bedpost of her bed. "I have a surprise for you. But if you don't hurry, and keep quiet, we're going to miss it _and_ wind up with whippings for sneaking out. So no telling."  
  
"I wasn't going to tell," Dot replied, haughty as you like, and swung her long dark braid back over her shoulder. "But I'm not going anywhere until you tell me where."  
  
"See," Nate hissed at Nora, who had her finger in her mouth now as she stood waiting by the door. "I told you. We're going to the roof," he grabbed Dot's hand and tugged. "Now trust me and come on!"  
  
They tumbled through the hallways un-noticed, and then up the back stairs, out the window that he'd propped open before going to bed the night before. Nate squeezed out first and carefully handed Nora out onto the little gable roof. Dot was next, once Nora was settled, and he made sure to keep a close grip on her hands until she was out with them both, in the crisp late-summer night. "It's cold," she told him, as if he didn't already know, and maybe he wans't going to miss his sisters that much after all.  
  
"I'm hungry," Nora announced, and curled in close to Nate's side when he sat down between them. The roof tiles were cold under him, and the sky arced above, beautifully clear, the  stars a hundred thousand points of light in a black basin. Dot curled in on his other side, stiffer than Nora, but curious, and he wrapped his arm around her to keep her close. The crunch in his pocket reminded him, and he pulled out the napkin-wrapped packet of biscuits that he'd liberated from the kitchen after setting the window. They were crumbling, but still good, and he crammed the biggest piece into his own mouth - because if he hadn't gotten them, no-one would have any - then shared the broken pieces between the girls.  
  
"You still haven't said why we're on the roof in the middle of the night, Nate," Dot bossed him, but the skies gave him an answer before he had to say anything.  
  
"Look," Nate pointed up. "Just where I'm pointing." The sun hadn't started to come up yet and the sky was dark, and there, just on the horizon, it was starting. A star shot across the sky, bright as anything, then vanished from sight. Nora jumped on her rear end and squeaked, and Dot made a muffled noise around her biscuit that she'd never admit to later.  
  
"Make a wish, Dot, make a wish!" Nora bounced and squealed and grabbed Dot's hand across Nate's lap. Dot grabbed back, her face turned up, and she screwed her eyes tight-tight closed as she wished.  
  
Another flared, shot across the sky and died, and Nate let out the breath he was holding. "Look, there's more!" The paper had _said_ , but papers weren't always right, and he didn't have a telescope or looking glass of his own in case they weren't big enough to see. But now another star streaked by, brighter than the first. It crossed the heavens and vanished to whereverstars went when they weren't stars anymore.  
  
"Ohh," Nora breathed out, her little fingers twined in his, and Nate held on tightly.  
  
The streaks came faster, then, and faster, until he couldn't count how many there were all appearing and disappearing at once.  
  
The sun would be up soon, and the house awake, and he would have to start to say his goodbyes. By this time tomorrow he would be at school, sleeping in a strange bed, on his way to a new life. And his sisters would still be here, close and safe in their nursery, growing and changing without him.  
  
Right now, they had the roof, his sisters' hands holding his, and a thousand stars to make wishes on.  
  
Would it look like this at sea? Would he be able to see everything this clearly or more? Would he still feel the... the _bigness_ of it all when he was a grown man, or would the  stars be just another guideline to mark on a chart?  
  
Dot squeezed his hand tight, and settled her head on his shoulder. Nora curled under his arm and stole the last biscuit from the napkin in his lap. Nate pressed his face into Nora's hair and breathed in her sweet baby-scent, and tried to remember it for always.  
  
One way or another, the stars would always find his way home.


End file.
